Fox cancels Raising Hope

When Fox announced the renewals of New Girl(!), Brooklyn Nine-Nine(!!), The Mindy Project(?), and The Following(boo) on Friday, it left only a small fraction of the network’s programs with uncertain fates. As reported by Variety this afternoon, Raising Hope will not be one of the shows Fox keeps around to fill out its schedule while it tears down pilot season and transforms into a year-round TV machine. The show had come a long way from its pilot—in which twentysomething Jimmy Chance (Lucas Neff) finds himself the unexpected father of a serial killer’s baby—maturing into a colorful, live-action cartoon that served as one of network TV’s last outposts for working-class protagonists. (And thus the Hecks of The Middle find themselves freighted with just one more burden.)

Raising Hope ends its four-year run with a one-hour finale on April 4, riding into the sunset from the Friday-night timeslot that was a likely factor in (and early sign of) its demise. “We planned our Season Four finale with this possibility in mind,” said executive producer Mike Mariano, “and hope our loyal fans enjoy the way we’ve chosen to say goodbye to the Chances and to Natesville.” Fitting for Raising Hope’s appreciation of television history, the show will ascend to syndication heaven this fall, where it will get chummy with Cloris Leachman’s past life on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and sit at the right hand of season-two cold-open inspiration Sherwood Schwartz.